The next trope in my Occupation Tropes project is The Barber. I've pointed out that some Occupation Tropes are extremely wide in scope and thus attract ZCES. The description states that this is a "Western gossipy/talkative character who cuts men's hair and shaves their faces," which is tropeworthy but is often ignored and applied for any man who works as a barber. This might also be covered by Chatty Hairdresser, which covers male examples. I'll then check if The Barber has a high ZCE count and if it has a tropeworthy concept in there or if it's redundant with Chatty Hairdresser.

The results of the wick check:

• 28/54 are "X is/has the role of a barber" kinda ZCEs or contextless potholes, or 52%.
• 15/54 are examples redundant with Chatty Hairdresser, or 28%.
• 5/54 are examples with various useful context, or 9%.
• 6/54 are misuse and other unsorted examples, or 11%.

• Long analysis: Indeed, most of the examples have low context or potholes without enough context due to the trope's vague scope and broad name. The other common problem is that even the correct, fleshed out examples have a very strong similarity to Chatty Hairdresser, proving that this trope is a Chatty Hairdresser 2.0 but the western male only ver. A few examples explain how some characters work as barbers + plastic surgeons but this is somewhat mentioned in this trope + in Depraved Dentist, so I don't think it warrants its own different trope. A few examples are misuse in that they apply the trope to female characters when this is cited as the Distaff Counterpart to Chatty Hairdresser which means it's an Always Male trope.
  
• Solutions:
  • Merge with Chatty Hairdresser and add a paragraph about some (town) barbers doing surgeries or even real doctors' jobs etc.
  • Cut.

Wick check:

The next trope in my Occupation Tropes project is The Barber. I've pointed out that some Occupation Tropes are extremely wide in scope and thus attract ZCES. The description states that this is a "Western gossipy/talkative character who cuts men's hair and shaves their faces," which is tropeworthy but is often ignored and applied for any man who works as a barber. This might also be covered by Chatty Hairdresser, which covers male examples. I'll then check if The Barber has a high ZCE count and if it has a tropeworthy concept in there or if it's redundant with Chatty Hairdresser.

Wicks checked: 54/54.

• Quick results:
  • 28/54 are "X is/has the role of a barber" kinda ZCEs or contextless potholes, or 52%.
  • 15/54 are examples redundant with Chatty Hairdresser, or 28%.
  • 5/54 are examples with various useful context, or 9%.
  • 6/54 are misuse and other unsorted examples, or 11%.

• Long analysis: Indeed, most of the examples have low context or potholes without enough context due to the trope's vague scope and broad name. The other common problem is that even the correct, fleshed out examples have a very strong similarity to Chatty Hairdresser, proving that this trope is a Chatty Hairdresser 2.0 but the western male only ver. A few examples explain how some characters work as barbers + plastic surgeons but this is somewhat mentioned in this trope + in Depraved Dentist, so I don't think it warrants its own different trope. A few examples are misuse in that they apply the trope to female characters when this is cited as the Distaff Counterpart to Chatty Hairdresser which means it's an Always Male trope.
  
  
• One possible solution: Merge with Chatty Hairdresser and add a paragraph about some (town) barbers doing surgeries or even real doctors' jobs etc.

---

---

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 6th 2023 at 7:28:41 AM

Opened.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Merge, as I said in the Is this tropeworthy/Chairs thread.

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

I'll go with merging as well.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Merge ”gossipy male barber” examples with Chatty Hairdresser and rewrite that description to be less femme-centric to accommodate.

The concept of “the town is so small the barber is also the doctor and the handyman” seems beyond that though. Is there a better-fitting trope than New Jobs As The Plot Demands?

Edited by Synchronicity on Jul 3rd 2023 at 9:00:32 AM

Merge and adjust Chatty Hairdresser if necessary.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

This is not that relevant, but it might need its own trope.

Merging sounds good.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report

That trope might work if Tropes Are Flexible would allow it, but I'm not 100% sure. The description isn't quite clear as to whether it only applies to having one job at a time (as opposed to having more than one and alternating between them), though the trope used to be called Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?, if that matters.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 9:38:46 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

I'd rather yard that, as that's a well known own thing about snall towns.

Edited by Amonimus on Jul 3rd 2023 at 5:41:07 PM

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

Merge, yard Omnidisciplinary Employee/Super Employee or something like that as a related trope to NJATPD/Super Doc.

Edit: True. Good catch.

Edited by Yindee on Jul 3rd 2023 at 11:05:43 AM

Vehicle-Based Characterization | Grief-Induced Split | Locker Mail

Also Schoolmarm may be related.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup

It's in your merge proposal though. That would mean expanding Chatty Hairdresser to allow such cases, so I just wanted to clarify.

Edited by Synchronicity on Jul 3rd 2023 at 9:56:37 AM

Oh, right, forgot about this. But if we're agreeing on making a separate trope for this then it might not be within this thread's scope. Anyone can draft a different trope from TRS.

move examples that fit over to Chatty Hairdresser, cut the original page / redirect to Hair Tropes. I think New Jobs As The Plot Demands or its subtrope Renaissance Man can cover the idea Synch discussed.

I'm fine with this, except maybe we could disambiguate The Barber between Chatty Hairdresser, New Job as the Plot Demands, and Renaissance Man instead of redirecting to Hair Tropes. (I don't have a strong opinion on disambiguating vs. redirecting. However, I do think Renaissance Man might catch some of the usage that was brought up; I don't think I already knew about that trope.)

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 3rd 2023 at 12:05:26 PM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.

Not a fan of disambiguating here.

Either redirect or merge.

I’m leaning on merging.

Merge

Kirby is awesome.

I think a merge is better than a disambig, so count me in for merging as well.

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.

Merge.

to Merge and adjustments to Chatty Hairdresser to make it less female-focused.

This one is quick because it has less than 100 inbounds or wicks (IDK)

Edited by StalkerGamer on Jul 6th 2023 at 6:19:56 AM